Everyone knows the requirements for President of the U.S.--leadership, vision, and airtight alibis dating back to junior high. But just what does it take to be vice-president? As Steve Tally tells it in Blind Ambition, a sly look at our vice-presidents, from John Adams to Dan Quayle, is more outrageous than any modern smear campaign concoction.
Steve Tally writes amusing and engaging books and articles about complex or otherwise dry topics. Tally combines award-winning explanatory journalism with humor and satire to make entertaining reading of complicated and obscure topics such as the lives of vice presidents, the biochemistry of fireflies, the peculiarities of quantum computing, or the dangers inherent in the Articles of Confederation. "A real pro," Laura Lippman, former president of the Mystery Writers of America, wrote in a profile of Tally for the Baltimore Sun.
Tally's first book, Bland Ambition was featured in publications as diverse as The New York Times, USA Today, and The National Enquirer. While anchoring The CBS Evening News, Bob Schieffer read a portion of the book one evening at the end of a broadcast. The book was also submitted as part of a brief in the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton.
About Almost America, the Barnes & Noble History Newsletter wrote, "Of all the alternate history books out there, Tally's book is by far the best written."
A former newspaper political humorist, Tally has won the Nissan Travel Writing award for an article in America magazine, the Pilot Pen Creative Writing Award for an article in Campus Life magazine, and 13 national or international awards for science writing.
Tally received an MFA in fiction from Indiana University in 1996.
